CoRMORANT. NATAT. PHALACROCORAX. 447 
an accidental variety. It is now, however, well ascertained, 
that, on the approach of spring, both sexes invariably under- 
go the change that assimilates them to the Crested Cormorant 
of Bewicx and others, and which garb they retain till after 
reproduction has been effected. ‘This I have had repeated 
opportunities of verifying from my own observation, and by 
the dissection of many specimens ftom a colony that annual- 
ly breed at the Fern Islands on the Northumbrian coast. 
This bird is perhaps generally looked on with dislike, from 
an association of ideas produced by the extravagant descrip- 
tions of different authors, and from the prominent part it is 
made to perform in the sublime poem of “ Paradise Lost.” 
As naturalists, however, and believers in the unerring wis- 
dom so greatly and wonderfully displayed throughout the 
animated creation, we are not to judge of its qualities from 
the exaggerations of fancy, but to consider whether its powers 
are not fitly and beautifully adapted to the place it is destin- 
ed to fill in the great chain of the universe. Viewed in this, 
the only true light, we shall find much to admire, since its 
instincts and habits are in such perfect accordance with, and 
so ably support, the economy of its being. So far, indeed, 
from possessing the bad qualities attributed to it, it seems, 
from the testimony of Monracu *, to be endowed with a na- 
ture directly the reverse; for he states, that he found it ex- 
tremely docile, of a grateful disposition, and without the 
smallest tincture of a savage or vindictive spirit. This cha- 
racter I can confirm, from having kept it in a domesticated 
state; and the very fact, indeed, of these birds having been 
trained to fish, as many of the Falconid@ are to fowl, is a 
further proof of its docility and tractable nature. Like other 
piscivorous birds, its digestion is rapid, and its consumption 
of food consequently great, but the epithet of glutton, and 
the accusation of unrelenting cruelty, are no more applicable 
to it, than to any other bird destined by its Creator to prey 
* See Supplement to the Ornith. Dict., article Cormorant, where an in- 
pp ’ 
teresting account of its manners is given. 
o 
